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North Korea Threatens To Retaliate "Thousands Of Times Over" Against The United States Over Latest UN Sanctions

North Korea has vowed to retaliate and make "the United States pay a price" for drafting fresh UN sanctions over its banned nuclear weapons programme.

The official KCNA news agency said the sanctions, which were unanimously passed by the UN on Saturday, were a "violent violation of our sovereignty".

The UN Security Council decision followed repeated missile tests by North Korea which have escalated tensions on the peninsula. In its first major response, North Korea insisted that it would continue to develop its controversial nuclear weapons programme. The state-run KCNA news agency said Pyongyang would "not put our self-defensive nuclear deterrent on the negotiating table" while it faces threats from the US.

It threatened to make the US "pay the price for its crime thousands of times," referring to America's role in drafting the UN sanctions resolution.

Speaking to reporters at a regional forum in the Philippine capital, Manila, North Korean spokesman Bang Kwang Hyuk said: "The worsening situation on the Korean peninsula, as well as the nuclear issues, were caused by the United States. We affirm that we'll never place our nuclear and ballistic missiles programme on the negotiating table, and won't budge an inch on strengthening nuclear armament."